


Modern AU: Saizo/Yukimura common route

by Tania_me



Series: SLBP modern AU retold [2]
Category: Samurai Love Ballad: PARTY, 天下統一恋の乱 | Sakura Amidst Chaos | Samurai Love Ballad (Visual Novel)
Genre: Modern AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 21:26:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12541580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tania_me/pseuds/Tania_me
Summary: Part 2 of the modern AU! This is Saizo and Yukimura's common route.





	1. Chapter 1

For my entire trip to the city, my phone was blowing up with texts and phone calls from my mom’s phone. Naturally, I had taken my sister’s with me. It would defeat the purpose if I just left if there for her to find all the information. I couldn’t bring myself to reply, though my guilt over that was through the roof. I had too much nervous energy to concentrate on a book, so I decided to try looking up the company I was supposed to infiltrate to help pass the time.

Kai Investment Holdings Corporation. Business logo: a tiger rampant. (“A tiger standing up looking fierce” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.) Publically traded. Investments consist of real estate and stock. Pretty good return on investment, with a correspondingly high share price, but if you had the money it would probably be worth it. I scrolled down further. Aha! CEO: Takeda Shingen. I tapped on his name to find… a broken link. Frowning, I went to my search engine and tried looking there. Nothing – the only link was to the Wiki page I’d just been on and a page on the Kai Investment Holdings Corporation website that had no information other than the names of the CEO and various other departmental officers.

Damn. He must be old if he doesn’t have any sort of internet presence, I thought to myself as I shut the screen of my phone off. Sighing, I sat back and closed my eye and decided to try to avoid thinking about what was going to happen as much as possible.

I managed to take a small nap on the train, which thankfully made the trip feel a little shorter. Our landlord’s instructions had included directions to a small apartment that had been rented out for me (rent only included for the first month – but better than not at all, I guess. The mob was pretty stingy considering I was helping them get their claws into a multibillion company). Once I arrived, I found a place best described as a glorified closet – but on the plus side, it did have a full kitchen and came fully furnished. Setting my bags down, I surveyed my new domain.

The decorator had clearly gone for a neutral palette. Beige bedding covered the twin bed. Beige fabric covered the small couch. Beige walls surrounded the entire room. Beige counters surrounded the kitchen. Basically picture every conceivable thing that comes in beige as being beige and you’ll be absolutely correct. Resolving to at least track down a colourful throw blanket and maybe a nice pillow or two, I quickly unpacked my belongings, laying out my outfit of choice for the morning.

“I want a girl in a short skirt and a loooooooooong… jacket,” I sang to myself, glancing over at my heavy winter coat with the hem that fell to my knees. Tomorrow’s outfit had to make an impression, so I’d picked out a skirt that didn’t quite make it halfway down my thighs (the skirt having been one of the few items I’d bought for work that I had never actually worn to work after realizing how short it actually was, but had kept because it made my legs look way longer than they actually were) and a red blouse with a ruffled front and a plunging neckline. They said red is a power colour and you should wear it when trying to seduce someone, so I figured every little bit helps. That done, I changed into decidedly unsexy pyjamas and sat down to text my mother and sister.

“I’m here. I’m okay. I’ll let you know how things are going later.” Send.

“omg I cant believe u,” my sister’s text came back immediately. I winced a little at her text speak. She usually pretended that she texted full words when she texted me because she knew how much I hated “text speak.” The fact she wasn’t bothering meant she was furious at me and wanted me to know it. Ah, sisters.

Bing. “u had mom so worried”

Bing. “u havent even had a bf for yrs”

Bing. “how r u going to seduce some1?????????!!!”

“I’ll figure it out. It can’t be that hard.” Send.

Bing. “if its not hard ur not doing it right. This is why id be better”

“Well, I’m glad you’re joking about it now. I didn’t stop you because you’d have to seduce someone. I went because it’s super freaking illegal and I want you to be able to do what you want when you finish school.” Send.

Bing. “You always martyr urself. Just come home. We’ll figure it out.” Punctuation. Some capitals. She was less mad. A little bit of tension I’d been holding onto without realizing it left me.

“Too late. It’s done. I’m here. And I’m going to bed.” Send.

“I love you guys.” Send.

Decisively, I turned my phone off and plugged it in to charge and then crawled into bed. Sleep came surprisingly easy, considering what was going to happen in the morning and how crazy nervous I was.

 

The next morning, I stood in front of the mirror, turning from side to the side and looking at myself critically. I knew I didn’t have that much to work with up top (if you’re only allotted a certain amount of hip and bust, mine had scaled heavily in the downward half), but there had to be something I could do to make them more, well, MORE. I bent over to attempt the scoop and shuffle trick, jiggling the cups around like you always see women do in movies.

“Miracle boost bra, my ass,” I muttered to myself as I stood back up straight again and saw little difference in presentation. I took my hands and squeezed my boobs together, finally creating some cleavage. Perfect. Now to just spend the entire day holding my them together and hope no one notices my super subtle trick. Sighing, I gave up and dropped my hands to my side. This was another area in which my sister would have had the edge. Maybe it’s families who only get a certain allotment? If so, she had taken half of my breast allotment in addition to hers and retaliated by giving me half her hips. Hopefully Takeda Shingen is more of an ass man.

Right. Enough procrastinating. It wouldn’t look good for the new intern to be late on her first day. I double checked my makeup in the mirror beside the door on my way out (eyeliner drawn on thicker than usual, check; exaggerated cat’s eye, check; red lipstick, check – I definitely looked like a university student’s idea of a professional woman. You know, the idea you had back before you got a job and realized you’re mostly running on caffeine and that yesterday’s makeup with a fresh coat of mascara is your idea of getting ready). Good to go. Scarf tied, jacket on, I caught the bus to my destination, which was, again, an efficient trip. I arrived thirty minutes early, to my relief, because it meant I could stop and get a coffee from the shop across the street from my new job and inject some much needed caffeine into my veins. Well, not literally. I don’t think they offer that at most coffee shops.

Carrying my vente vanilla latte (with extra whip because eff it), I pushed through the sparkling glass and chrome doors to the lobby. The company’s logo was emblazoned behind the reception desk in the lobby, stark white against the black marble accent wall. The building the company’s offices were in reflected the kind of slick investment feel you’d expect from a company that wants you to trust it with your money. Black leather seating, chrome accents, pure white tiles and black marble all shouted, “we’re reliable. We’re expensive, but we’re worth it.” It was both impressive and extremely intimidating. I willed my hands not to shake as I stood there looking around, but I can’t say I was very successful.

My sister’s phone buzzed in my pocket as I was bracing myself to approach reception. Pausing and pulling it out, I glanced at the screen. More instructions from our landlord.

“You’ll be working directly under Takeda Shingen. We had to pull a lot of strings. Act suitably impressed with him.” Okay, so our landlord was a huge sleaze who worked for the mob, but I super grudgingly respected the fact he used full words when typing. I guess even pond scum has some good qualities.

“Fine.” I typed. That’s all he gets from me. Send.

Now that I was here, reality started to set in. Oh god, I’m really doing this, I thought. A trickle of cold sweat dripped down my back to join my shaky hands as I made my way towards reception. I think I’m going to throw up, I thought to myself. But on the plus side, I managed to walk across the polished floor in four inch heels without completely bailing and dumping coffee all over myself. It’s the small victories.

“Um, hi?” I said to the receptionist, trying to sound like a university student before realizing how stupid that was. University students sound like all sorts of things, including my normal voice. I should know, I used to be one. “My name is Sakumi Mai. I’m supposed to start my internship at Kai Investments Corporation today?” I held out my sister’s ID that I “borrowed” on my way out, mentally crossing my fingers that the receptionist wouldn’t look too closely.

The receptionist sent a thankfully brief glance at my ID, looking to just confirm the name, and then hit a few keys with her perfectly manicured fingers. Her nails were a soft pink with small yellow flowers painted across them and were absolutely adorable. I couldn’t not say something. “I love your nails!” I exclaimed, and winced as I realized I maybe sounded a little too enthusiastic.

The receptionist, however, looked up at me with a huge smile. “Thanks!” she said, holding one hand up so I could get a closer look. “I have a friend who does them. She always does such a great job.”

“Do you have a card, or something? It’s been forever since I got mine done!” At least one person who works here was friendly, at least. Some of my nerves subsided at that; a company’s reception often gave you an idea of what the rest of its hiring practices were so fingers crossed everyone was nice and had amazing nails.

“Definitely! Here,” she replied, digging around in drawer beside her and handing me a small business card, pulling out a set of keys as she did. “Tell her Umeko sent you, she’ll give you a discount.”

“Umeko,” I repeated, to remember. “It’s nice to meet you!”

“You, too!” she said cheerily, getting up to unlock a set of drawers behind her sitting area with the keys. Reaching inside, she pulled out a lanyard with an electronic key card, the kind that looks like the keys you get at hotels. “This is your temp card. We’ll get you a real one with a picture once you’re settled in. You’ll be working directly with Mr. Takeda, so you’ll take the elevator to the top floor where his office and the boardroom are. Noriko works reception there, and she’ll introduce you to everyone.”

“Elevator?” I repeated, weakly. The building was fifty stories high; taking the stairs was definitely out of the question unless I wanted to be really late. But, real talk, I hate elevators. I hate how it feels like your stomach is escaping through the bottom of your feet as you go up and out of top of your head as you go down.

Umeko smiled at me kindly, probably hearing my utter lack of enthusiasm coming through. “Don’t worry – it’s the newest model. They’ve never been safer. Just use your card to swipe the security lock to get it going and hit the fiftieth floor. I’ll page up and let them know you’re on your way.”

“Thanks again.” I tucked the business card into my purse and waved at Umeko, heading to the shiny elevator doors and pushing the call button. I tapped one foot nervously as I watched the floor number the elevator was on go down with disturbing speed. The number 1 lit up and the doors whooshed open, the mirrored interior welcoming me inside with a repeating image of myself fading out into the distance. Creepy.

The elevator ride was exactly as bad as I had expected. It was one of those fancy, high tech elevators that move super fast, so the stomach-out-my-feet feeling was immediate and lasted the entire trip, which was blessedly short. I took the opportunity to double check that my hair was still tidy and that my lipstick hadn’t come off on my coffee cup, and was satisfied that I’d done the best job that I could do. Once the doors whooshed open at the top floor, I stepped out to see a beautifully decorated reception area, less sterile than the lobby’s black , white, and glass by far. Clearly, the person who designed this space had also heard that red was a power colour and they had used it extensively. Everything was tan, cream, or red with black accents, but the entirety was thrown together with incredibly taste, lending the space a strange sort of allure, like… hmm, like an incredibly expensive yet classy old-timey saloon without the half-dressed women on offer.

A woman stood and walked around the front desk area to greet me as I stood there looking around. I immediately felt self conscious about my wardrobe choice, as her outfit was the epitome of professional but attractive – black knee length skirt, pink polka dot blouse, and a tailored black blazer. I was having serious outfit envy. I didn’t think I’d ever managed to look that put together even when I was working at the accounting firm.

She held out a hand and I shook it as I introduced myself. “My name is Sakumi Mai. It’s nice to meet you.” I took a subtle look at her fingers. I was slightly disappointed to see hers were trimmed relatively short and polished with a clear varnish. No fancy nails to admire here.

“Hello, Mai,” she replied, smiling sweetly. “My name is Noriko. I’ll show you to your office, where you can put your coat and belongings, and then I’ll introduce you to Mr. Shingen.”

“I get an entire office?” I said, shocked. I’d had a cubicle at my accounting firm even after two years. My own office had been a dream.

“Most of the staff works the next floor down,” Noriko explained as I followed her through the hall, recessed lighting lending the cream wallpaper a soft glow. “Mr. Takeda likes the quiet when he works, so the offices up here are mostly unused.”

“He won’t mind me being here, then?”

“Not as long as you’re quiet,” she said, with a quick smile at me to show she was joking. “Your office is small, unfortunately,” Noriko continued, opening the door to a small room with a desk in the centre that had two screens atop it. “But it does have a window. Unfortunately, that can be a bit of an annoyance when the sun is out, so if you want to close the blinds you’ll have to use this.” She handed me a small remote. I pushed the button and watched as a layer of blinds descended between two layers of window, shutting out the light.

“That’s so cool!” I exclaimed. 

Noriko laughed a little and said, “I’m glad you like it. I find it a little annoying, myself – sometimes they get stuck! Anyway, you can hang your coat and purse over here.” She gestured to a set of hooks on the wall.

Setting my coffee onto the desk, I hung my purse up on one of the hooks before I unbuttoned my coat slowly, reluctant to reveal my current clothing choice to this well dressed woman. Steeling my resolve, I undid the last button and whipped off my coat, draping it over one of the hooks. I followed up with my scarf before I took the lanyard and hung it over my neck. It rested, much to my eternal embarrassment, exactly where my cleavage would have been if my bra had done its advertised duty.

Well, on the plus side, that was one thing taken care of. Draw attention to boobs? Check.

Noriko, to her credit, didn’t appear to bat a single perfect eyelash at my choice of clothing in spite of how out of place it looked when contrasted with her own. “If you’ll follow me?” she said, heading out the door and turning to the right. Nodding, I grabbed my coffee and followed her down the hallway to the large, glass-walled room at the end.

Two men were standing together and talking quietly towards the head of a large, polished black table that stood in the centre of the room which was surrounded by large, plush leather chairs. The view from here was amazing, and momentarily distracted me from my fate. The city stretched out below, with glittering highrises reflecting the clear blue winter sky.

One of those men was Takeda Shingen. This was no time to be admiring the scenery. Look at him, I ordered myself.

“Good morning,” Noriko said, nodding her head politely towards the two. “This is Sakumi Mai. She’ll be interning here for the next few months. I’ll leave you to get acquainted.”

I bowed politely, trying to bend in a way that stuck my chest out a little more than usual as I did. “It’s nice to meet you.” Raising back up, I took an actual look at the two men who had now both turned and were looking back at me. I stifled a gasp. One of those men was Red Shirt! He had foregone the red button up and man cleavage for a white dress shirt, no tie, and grey dress slacks, but it was unmistakably him. His hair, now that I saw it in natural light, was more of a dark steel grey than black, but it was still as shiny as ever. What if he recognized me?

His blue eyes skimmed my body and a flush started along his neck before he quickly glanced away – causing a blush to start on my own. Oh geez, this is so embarrassing. Looking away from Red Shirt (without his red shirt) to attempt to avoid an endless feedback loop of embarrassment, I met the eyes of the other man.

The other man was just… wow. The company’s logo was a tiger, and looking at this man, you couldn’t imagine a more perfect avatar. His red hair was slicked back against his head and his eyes were a clear, cat-like amber. His suit was perfectly tailored to show off a powerful body that he definitely did not get from sitting behind a desk. Those catlike eyes were currently making a slow pass down my body, reaching my feet and quirking an eyebrow slightly as he noted the height of my heels. He took an equally long time looking back up to my face, the appreciation in his eyes quite flatteringly clear.

Oh, my. I got a clear impression that this man would not be difficult to seduce. My heart was racing a little just from him looking at me.

“I am Takeda Shingen,” the man with the cat eyes purred. He had an deep baritone voice that rumbled through me. The man oozed sex, good lord. “This is Sanada Yukimura, head of our security. He’ll be taking you to get your ID badge created.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” the man called Yukimura said, still not looking directly at me.

“After we have that taken care off, I have some papers for you to sign. Confidentiality agreements, of course,” Shingen said.

“Of course,” I echoed. Great, I had forgotten about that being a likely requirement. I guess I would have to add “breacher of contract” to “seductress.” Speaking of… I shifted my weight slightly, cocking a hip to the side and tossing my hair over my shoulder as I looked at Shingen. Okay, I can do this. This isn’t so hard.

Shingen was turning his back to me, leaving me feeling slightly deflated. “Yukimura, take the young lady to get her picture taken.”

“O-oh. Yes, sir,” Yukimura said. He beckoned me to following him and we headed down the hall, back to the dreaded elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

“So… Kazuko,” Yukimura said, his eyes flickering briefly to me before turning away again, a slight pink flush still high on his cheeks. At least my outfit was having the desired effect on one person, though based on how easily he seemed affected I don’t know if I could call that a victory. On the plus side, his pink cheeks really highlighted the brilliant blue of his eyes.

Oh, right, that’s me. I got distracted by his eyes and also by the fact that I’m not actually Kazuko. He’s probably expecting me to say something back. “Yes?” I replied.

“I heard you’re really good at transcribing,” he said, flashing me a smile. Whoa, I thought, when he looks at you and smiled he is rather devastatingly cute.

“Transcribing?” I asked, blankly. Out of all the things that he could have said, that was one of the least expected. “I’m pretty average at it, I guess.”

“Don’t be modest,” Yukimura said. We had reached the elevator doors at this point. “It’s what helped narrow you down on the intern list. Most people can turn data into a report, but we need someone to turn meetings into data.”

Okay, cool, so I had maybe a day or two to become really good at transcribing meetings. I could practice with TV shows. No pressure.

“We have a meeting later this morning that we’ll start you on,” he continued.

Make that a lot of pressure. Completely unable to think of a way to say, oh god no, I can’t do that, I barely took notes in school, I blurted out instead without thinking, “The head of security attends board meetings?” Yep, that’s me. Super tactful.

Thankfully, Yukimura didn’t appear to be insulted. “I’m also a board member,” he said, gesturing for me to enter the elevator ahead of him and following in behind, pushing the button to the next floor down. “My father’s a key investor and this is how he keeps an eye on things.”

Ah, I thought, a little bit of nepotism. But if he does his job well, that’s not really a problem.

The elevator ride was so fast that the silence didn’t even have an opportunity to get awkward. Bracing myself did nothing to stop the feeling of my stomach rocketing out of the top of my head as it smoothly stopped and the doors whooshed open. As we stepped off, Yukimura said, “We go left,” and I turned what I thought was the right way.

I was stopped by Yukimura’s hand on my shoulder. “Um, left is the other direction,” he said. I stopped and spun around, wobbling a bit on my heels as my face flushed bright red and I walked stiffly in the opposite, correct left direction.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, embarrassed. What a good time for my inability to tell right from left without looking at my hands to manifest. However, peeking at Yukimura from the corner of my eye, he appeared to be under the impression that my shoulder was made out of lava, or possibly acid, because he was staring at the hand with which he’d touched me with an expression I could only describe as “horror.”

“I’m sorry for grabbing you!” he exclaimed, holding the offending appendage in front of him like he was marching a traitor to execution. “I just didn’t want you to get lost.”

“It’s fine,” I replied. “Honestly. I would get lost in a wet paper bag, so feel free to grab me whenever.”

Once the words were out of my mouth, I realized exactly how they probably sounded.

“Grab me whenever I’m going the wrong way, I mean,” I quickly clarified. “Don’t just grab me whenever in general, that would be rude.” Just keep talking, Mai, I’m sure you’re making things so much better here.

“Uh, right, okay,” Yukimura said, stopping in front of a door. His cheeks were still a little red, but now at least he was looking at me. Maybe that was the solution. Be super awkward at him and make him realize that even though he could see my butt if I bent over wrong that I was just a normal person. “This is where we’ll get your pictures done.”

Opening the door, Yukimura introduced me to the man inside, which picked up a camera and gestured me towards a well-lit corner. 

“I’ll leave you to this. Come back upstairs once you have your ID together. Noriko should have your papers to sign ready in your office to read over, so make sure to read them and know what you’re agreeing to. I’ll come get you around ten minutes before the meeting starts at 11, so you should have plenty of time to read those and the company policies,” Yukimura said before he nodded politely at me and the man with the camera and leaving.

Getting my ID together was pretty quick. As expected, my picture came out looking more like the mugshot of a serial killer than a normal person, but the guy refused to take another one at a MySpace angle because “then it wouldn’t look like” me, so I hung the finished product around my neck and sulked my way back upstairs to my new office.

I was still staring at my new ID when I walked into my office. I kept hoping that if I looked at it from another angle it would look better, but no luck. I still looked like I wore suits made out of people no matter how much I turned it or squinted at it. I closed the door behind me and groped towards my jacket for my phone – if I cropped out the company name, Kazuko would get a huge kick out of how bad a picture it was.

So I was pretty dang surprised when I heard someone from behind my desk say, in a deathly cold voice, “Who are you?”

My head whipped up so fast that combined with my involuntary step backwards, the back of my skull made contact with the door with a dull and painful thud. Eyes wide, I stared at the man who was currently sitting in my desk, my phone in one hand, Kazuko’s phone on the desk in front of him, and an honest-to-god gun resting oh so casually on top on my desk, only a couple of centimetres from his hand. I thought I saw his eyes widen briefly as we made eye contact, but his face returned to a chilling neutral expression so quickly that I could have been imagining it.

The man’s eyes were a strange shade of burnt umber, appearing almost red when the light hit them – the heat of the shade was a jarring contrast to the chill of his stare. His hair was the silver of an arctic fox, but he clearly wasn’t that old (nowhere near old enough to be a silver fox, the slightly hysterical part of my brain that had dissolved into making terrible jokes said, cackling madly while the rest of me shouted “shut up oh my god he has a GUN”).

“I’m, um, I’m the new intern?” I stammered, my statement somehow coming out as a question instead of a declaration of fact.

“Are you now,” he said flatly, placing my phone on the desk beside Kazuko’s in what was clearly a deliberate move to bring my attention to the fact that most people don’t have two phones. I glanced at them nervously, trying to remember whether there was anything incriminating between me and the landlord – but no. It could easily be taken as a mentor giving advice to the student he helped get a job, so that was fine (and probably quite deliberate on my landlord’s part; he was one of those people who have a brilliant survival instinct for avoiding incriminating themselves, even though a pet rat is more clever – an apt comparison because like a rat, he would probably survive anywhere).

I nodded fervently. Definitely the new intern. Not a lie.

“Tell me. Do you intend to bring harm to anyone here?” he asked, his hand moving infinitesimally closer to the gun sitting beside his hand, causing a cold sweat to break out on my back. That question… was slightly harder.

“I absolutely don’t want to hurt anyone,” I said. Completely true, again. Whether I was expected to was a different story, and I know lying by omission is still lying, but I tried to put all my pent-up desire to just not do this into my eyes as I looked at the man, barely blinking.

We spent what felt like hours like that, though it was probably only a few seconds, before he finally nodded and stood, picking up the gun and tucking it into a holster he must have had hidden under his dark blue blazer. He wore black slacks and what appeared to be a black t-shirt beneath that blazer. Black and blue, I thought, the colour of a bruise. He smiled, though it was entirely without warmth. I don’t know whether or not he believed me, but he was at least pretending to. Now that the gun was out of sight, I was able to take a moment to wonder why: 1. There was a person with a gun around, and 2. Why the HELL was he menacing (presumably) innocent young (enough) interns with it?!

As if he read my mind, the man said as he walked out from behind the desk, “Your recommendation came from an interesting source. I will be keeping an eye on you.”

Well, he was 100% correct on that and he was quite right to do so. Wait, no, Mai, don’t agree with the man with the gun even if he IS a silver fox without the whole much-older-man aspect.

“If you can tell me where I’d be hiding a weapon under this, please tell me,” I said sarcastically, holding my arms out with my palms facing him. His eyes skimmed over me at the invitation, and again I realized how it was pretty uncomfortable having people stare at you even when you’ve invited it.

“Hmm,” was all he said in reply, a small smirk on his face. He didn’t even appear to linger at my bare legs or exposed chest, which stung my pride probably a bit more than it should.

“If you’re satisfied that I’m not about to attack, I believe I have some paperwork to look at,” I said, walking past him and making sure I left a large space between us as I did so. I didn’t want to turn my back to him, exactly, but I also felt pretty certain it would look super suspicious if I didn’t, so I ignored the hair standing up on the back of my neck as I reached the desk and turned back around to face him.

To find that he wasn’t even there. I swear the door didn’t make a sound. How in the…

So, to recap my morning: met my boss, who was a super hot buff man. Probably easy to seduce, but very difficult to get close to. Met his head of security and apparent right hand man, who was probably really easy to get close to but would be difficult to seduce (he might spontaneously combust). Met mystery man who had a gun but didn’t shoot me and I would guess would be both difficult to seduce and difficult to get close to. Things definitely were not turning out how I had elaborately constructed the scenarios in my head on my trip here.

It wasn’t until I sat down that I realized that at some point I had misplaced my coffee.


	3. Chapter 3

After asking Noriko where I could get a coffee and making sure I got my caffeine fix, I headed back to my desk to get to work on reading documents. The confidentiality agreement was pretty basic; don’t reveal anything about anyone or anything that isn’t public knowledge. I felt a twinge of guilt as I signed before I remembered that I was signing it as Kazuko, not as myself, so technically I wasn’t actually agreeing to it. Immediately after that thought, I felt an even bigger twinge of guilt at the slight relief I had just felt as I remembered I wasn’t signing my name. You’re not signing your name because you’re going to be doing some probably awful unknown task, Mai, I chided myself. Patting yourself on the back over technicalities isn’t going to stop that. Especially as the technicality was pretty illegal. What was the crime of signing not your name called? I couldn’t remember, but I knew it was bad.

Pushing the confidentiality agreement aside, I started work on reading the employee manual. Also pretty basic – don’t sexually harass anyone (although I halfway felt like I was accidentally sexually harassing Yukimura just by wearing my current outfit, I thought as I self-consciously hitched up the neckline of my blouse), don’t bully, avoid smelly foods in the lunchroom, etc.

I did take note of the lack of rules against fraternizing. Good. Seduction wasn’t a firing offense. Maybe I could be the reason for a whole new chapter in the employee handbook. “Don’t seduce your boss and give away company secrets to mobsters to save your sister and family restaurant,” it would read, explicitly outlining things that most people would think are obvious “do nots” at work.

Setting aside the final stack of papers, I glanced over to the clock on the phone (as no one had set my up with a computer ID yet, I had found out when I tried to turn it on) to see there was still another thirty or so minutes before Yukimura said he would come and get me. Heaving a sigh, I sent a forlorn look at the computer sitting unused on my desk. I couldn’t use that to waste the next half hour. Chewing my lip, I thought about how best to waste some time. Pondering my options, I remembered I had data on my phone – Tumblr it was. And to be fair, if I was going Tumblring, the phone was maybe even a better option than a desktop, considering the potential for dicks to appear in my feed at unexpected points in time, and there were few things more embarrassing than a coworker walking in to see penises on your screen when you’re supposed to be working.

Decision made, I reached over to pick up my phone where it had been sitting untouched since that man had left. (I may be faking this intern thing, but that’s no excuse not to get through work while work is there.) As I pushed the button on the side and raised my right hand to swipe my finger across the little sensor, I stopped with my finger just above the sensor as I noticed it was already on the home screen. Did I unlock it already, I thought, pushing the button to turn the screen off. I pushed the button to turn it back on again, and it was the same thing – my phone was unlocked. My heart thumping in my chest, I scrambled for Kazuko’s phone and pushed the power button on hers to find the same thing. Someone had removed the passwords on both phones.

But how? My password was either my fingerprint (impossible to imitate), or a random jumble of letters and numbers that would be impossible to guess and would supposedly take a program a long time to guess, so how would someone unlock them… unless they factory reset them? My hands shook a little as I clicked on the messages folder, but everything appeared to still be there. Including, oh god, my messages to my sister where we talked about me seducing someone in her place because it was super freaking illegal.

Odds were good it was that silver fox (we’re seriously doing this, Mai? Reclaiming the term?) who had unlocked my phones and read those messages. In spite of that, he had still let me continue on with the only holes in me being the ones I was born with. Why?

Maybe he thought I was here to seduce a rich old man so he could take care of me? Skimming through my conversation with Kazuko, I thought that could be one interpretation. The family, fallen on hard times, sends their daughter off to be an escort with much weeping and hand wringing until one day a rich, handsome man (who, naturally, is only hiring the escort to pretend to be his girlfriend so his upper class mother stops nagging him) saves her from herself.

I’m pretty sure that’s basically the plot to “Bollywood/Hollywood,” which I distractedly made a note to myself to rewatch sometime.

Regardless of what weird scenarios I could spend hours concocting in my head, the reality of it was that I had absolutely no idea what the man was thinking and why he hadn’t pushed me harder when I had some clearly suspicious messages in my folder. Spinning in my chair absentmindedly, I added it to the list of things I needed to be wary of. Sighing, I sat back and set up new passwords on my phones, knowing the futility of it because I bet that man put some sort of spyware in them, if he had managed to get past their security. Another thing added to the list – watch what I say and try to spin the messages I get the right way to sound like I’m not doing what I know I’m doing and what he probably suspects I’m doing.

That activity having taken a whole five minutes of my time, I was now left with approximately twenty five minutes before the meeting.

Oh shit, the meeting at which I was supposed to take notes. I began to frantically search the desk for a pen and paper; pulling open the drawers, I got the feeling that the person who had owned this desk before me had just stuffed things in them to get them out of the way, and had only done a cursory clean up once they were finished. In the drawers, I found: three sizes of post it notes; a half empty pack of gum; (score! I thought, popping one out of the foil pack and into my mouth. I had just had coffee, after all); an article comparing taxation rules on the sales of real property in various countries (which I put aside to read later. Accountants gonna accountant); a mechanical pencil that contained no lead; and a stick of deodorant. But not a single piece of paper that didn’t have a sticky edge could be found within the depths of the desk. Sighing, I stood up to go ask Noriko for something I could use when I heard a knock at the door and Noriko herself poked her head in.

“Are you busy?” she asked, glancing at the stack of papers consisting of the confidentiality agreement and employee guidebook, because, of course, there was no gosh darned paper to be found within this desk.

“Oh, no, I’ve just finished with these,” I replied, picking them up and stacking them neatly. “I was actually just on my way to see you.”

Pushing the door fully open and walking forward, she held out a laptop towards me. “Perfect,” she said, “I’ll trade you. You’ll need this for the meeting – our tech security guy just finished setting it up. There’s no password for now, but he’ll be dropping by after the meeting to set one up with you.”

I took the laptop and handed off the stack of papers, feeling slightly embarrassed. Of course a multibillion dollar company isn’t going to have someone taking notes on a pad of paper like a high school student in English class. (“The pillars are symbolic for penises. The difficulty getting over the river is symbolic of sexual desire. Literally everything is symbolic of penises or sex.” Especially when you’re talking about Shakespeare, he loved dick jokes.) “Thanks,” I said out loud. “I was almost worried they were going to make me write it all by hand!”

“Haha, no,” Noriko said with a smile. “Saizo just wanted to make sure the computer was up to date. It will be replacing the desktop that’s here. That one is kind of a dinosaur.”

“Saizo’s the tech security guy?”

“Yeah, he’s one of Yukimura’s employees,” she said. “We don’t see him too often, but he must be good at his job because our computers rarely have issues.”

I nodded. It made sense that the physical security company would also have a tech security branch in this day and age.

“I’ll go and get these filed,” Noriko said, waving the papers in her hand. “You should be able to get things set up to your liking before Yukimura comes back. He’ll probably be about ten minutes early to the meeting. He is nothing if not prompt.”

“Okay, sounds good. Thanks again,” I replied, sitting back behind the desk and opening up the laptop. As Noriko left, I opened the word processor. Font: Calibri, size 11. Alignment: justified. Self: panicking. Oh my god, what if they looked at my notes and they weren’t good enough? What would even happen if I got fired from my internship on the first day?

No, Mai, this is no time to panic, I said to myself. Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself my words per minute was pretty decent and I didn’t have to pay attention to what was being said, I just had to write it down.

After what felt like way too little time, there was a knock at my door and Yukimura stuck his head in. “Are you ready?” he asked.

Closing the laptop and standing, I tucked it under my arm and nodded. “Ready,” I replied. “Let’s go!”

Yikes, I thought to myself, I maybe sounded too enthusiastic. Luckily, Yukimura hadn’t appeared to have noticed and was waiting for me in the hall. “So all you need to do is write down what is said,” Yukimura told me as we walked down the hall. “Don’t worry too much about making it readable. You can go back and edit it to proper notes afterward. Just get down the main points, who said what, et cetera, and we’ll work with what you have later.”

Pushing into the boardroom, Yukimura led me to a small desk set in the corner, slightly away from the large desk that dominated the room. The chair was plush leather and quite comfortable, I thought as I sank into it. “Don’t say anything unless someone speaks to you directly, okay?” he continued as I opened the laptop and plugged it into the cord that had conveniently been sitting on the desk.

“I think I can do that,” I said. “Be quiet, I mean.”

“Good,” he said, sending me that dazzling smile again. People were beginning to file into the board room and take their seats. With a polite wave to me, Yukimura made his way over to Mr. Takeda and they bent their heads together in discussion. With little to do except wait until the meeting began, I sat back and took in the scene in front of me.

In the seat directly to the right of the head of the table (which I assumed was Mr. Takeda’s spot) was a man dressed in a severe suit, a serious expression on his face. He spared a glance for me, but it was completely without curiousity, as if he already knew everything there was to know about me. Beside him in the next seat down was a woman about my age who was talking animatedly at the person beside her, a thin, balding man of no particular note. I couldn’t help an envious glance at her dress. It was clearly designer and tailored to perfection. The others appeared to consist of a variety of nondescript men, one portly, another with a thin mustache waxed into points. They all looked basically the same, if was honest, only a few standing out.

I perked up out of my people watching slump when a group of men whose entire presence screamed “hired muscle” appeared behind a blonde man who looked vaguely familiar. Yukimura and Mr. Takeda visibly tensed as the group appeared and they made their way to their seats, Mr. Takeda to the head of the table as expected and Yukimura to the seat on his left.

“Tokugawa,” Mr. Takeda said, less of a greeting than a statement. I stifled a gasp at the name. That was the man who wanted me to eat his poisoned food! “I don’t remember you being a member of the board.”

“I’m looking to expand into real estate,” Tokugawa said, taking the empty seat at the foot of the table and leaning back. I marveled at how sweet the man’s smile could look without ever reaching his eyes. “I’m willing to put in a very generous offer.”

“We’re not interested,” Yukimura said, his face uncharacteristically cold as he looked toward Tokugawa, his expression too icy to be called a glare. “We’ve heard of your methods. We’re not a small company you can intimidate into giving you what you want.”

“Oh, really?” Tokugawa smiled, his glance flickering over to the woman in the fabulous dress and, oddly, to me. I shrank back as his gaze lingered a moment too long. Did he recognise me? “Are you sure I can’t change your mind?”

“Only a coward threatens those weaker than he is,” Yukimura spat, noticing the direction of Tokugawa’s gaze. The woman had straightened up in her chair and was now glaring towards Tokugawa, clearly not intimidated.

Unlike me. I was super intimidated. Especially as one of the men standing behind Tokugawa swept back the lapel of his blazer to reveal a gun, growling out as he did so, “You dare call Mr. Tokugawa a coward?”

What the actual SHIT, I thought. Two guns within two hours. Less than two hours. Barely more than an hour. Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into? I thought I was seducing an old man, not getting guns waved around in my presence.

Tokugawa had his hand up, stopping his underling as the man reached towards his gun. “There’s no need for that, Yasumasa,” he said, standing languidly as if he didn’t just bring a gun to a board meeting (okay, that metaphor needed work but you come up with something better when there is a MAN with a GUN who looks ready to use it). “We’ll discuss this some other time. This isn’t over.”

With a nod towards the head of the table, and another inexplicable and super terrifying glance at me, Tokugawa left the board room. I felt as if the blood in my veins had turned into ice. Why did he keep looking at me? My boobs were not that impressive in this top. I turned my eyes to Mr. Takeda when I realized I hadn’t been taking notes this whole time.


End file.
